Maternity leave day 365, SAHM day 1

My P45 has arrived. Its just a piece of paper really. Life isn’t going to change tomorrow from today in any physical sense.

Today, I’ll drag my tired bum out of bed, sort breakfast, do the nursery run, faff around at home for what feels like a nanosecond before hopping back to preschool, do lunch, busy ourselves for the afternoon then knock up dinner. Play a while longer, wait for daddy to come home, make milks, have baths, read stories, put kids to bed.

Tomorrow, I’ll do all of the above, except instead of being on maternity leave, I’ll be unemployed.

Next month will be Baby-Gs first birthday, a year from when my colleagues and I said our ‘bye for nows’ and good lucks down the local pub. I popped my worky bits into a box under my desk ready for when I was back this October.

The redundancy announcement was back in January, so it’s well and truly sunk in. I’ve said my goodbyes, somewhat drunken and emotionally at the summer do. I’ve sent back my laptop on a KIT day in the spring. I’m feeling happy and content with the options I have ahead of me. I’ve accepted it. I’m ready to move on.

All of the above said, it is a landmark day for me in the journey called life so far. One that deserved a little blogpost. I’ve worked in the same place for 14 years so I’m admittedly a bit institutionalised. I’ve never not worked, never really thought about being a stay at home mum, never questioned that I may not return to work after maternity leave? I suppose that’s the magic of life; a surprise around every corner. And who ever said being a Mother wasn’t work anyway?

I really wish I could see this as my opportunity to pursue that dream job, invest my redundancy into retraining to fulfil that life long ambition to…to be a..err….I’ll keep thinking about that one.

So thank you Blog-ville for being my substitute job, keeping my brain out of the baby group and laundry gutter. Cheers for making me realise stay at home mums aren’t all mindless boring stereotypes. They are funny, intelligent, loving, normal gals like me, investing their energy into the next generation. Something I can and will be proud of. If, that is, if that is the path I choose.

Working Mums, hats off to you. So many of you, I have read, are torn between wanting and needing to work, and desperately missing that precious time with your children. Who said we can’t have it all? It’s there for the taking. How so many of you Parent, work full time and blog is quite something…taking multitasking to the next level. You are pretty inspirational.

Let’s raise a virtual glass to our own Mums, their Mums, and theirs again, who didn’t have the choices and freedom of us lucky lot today. That’s a thought isn’t it. For those women there were no choices, just set paths to follow, and they were done with pride, without grumbles, and with love.

For now, I’m forgetting deadlines and meetings, foregoing work wear and the commute, in favour of autumn walks in wellies, making Christmas cards, helping someone learn to walk and being there to catch her when she falls (quite often). I’ll be here, rocking Motherhood.

So for now, job searching is off the table. Until the time this Mum,who can’t sit still, gets an itch that might just needs scratching.

Welcome to the SAHM club! I chose not to return to work when my maternity leave ended after the birth of my son, and I still think it was the best decision I have ever made. I’m not a great SAHM, my house is rarely tidy, and sometimes I wish for more adult company during the day but I don’t regret it at all as I get to spend most of my time with my kids and they are bloomin’ amazing! I have set up my own freelance business, but at the moment it’s not something I’m really trying to grow or expand – I have a couple of clients which bring in a little extra money, and I can easily fit in the work around the kiddies.

When my youngest starts school full time I may consider trying to increase my business, or perhaps find a different job, but for now I’m happy with what I have. xxx

Love this. I kind of found myself unexpectedly unemployed too. I was working as a radio presenter (freelance by nature) but thought I’d go back to the job i was in. Hasn’t happened. At times I’ve felt really low about it, but now I’ve accepted that things have changed, I’m embracing the future and all the unexpected things that may lie ahead. In the meantime I work from home, enjoy TONNES of baby cuddles and laughs, eat too much cake and try and enjoy each day. And I still can’t get on top of the house work! Charlie x

Oh wow, I’m jealous. As you know I’m struggling with returning to work. I don’t think I could be a SAHM mum and do nothing though. I didn’t even cope on maternity leave which is why I started my blog. Good luck 🙂 Thanks for linking to #PickNMix

Lovely post. I’m supposed to be returning to work after maternity next month but I’m really not ready for it and I’m pondering what else I could do next instead…hopefully I’ll be joining you and enjoying some more time with Taylor in the run up to Christmas until I also get that itch. x

Hearing you say that makes me realise how glad I am that I’m not about to go back, amongst all the other chaos in our lives at this time of year (first birthday, christening, school applications, Christmas) I would never have fitted work in 🙂 good luck deciding, us mums never really have an easy option, just find your balance xxx

Ah this has really hit home. Ive just entered my last 3mths of mat leave and therefore without income too. I have no plans to go back at 12mths which is a shame as I love working but actually, I love my son more and there is only one person who I see fit to take the best care of him and that’s me. Good luck with everything hun, im sure we’ll be just fine! xx

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Hey, how's it going? I'm Sarah, a mum of two little girls, living in the Garden of England that is Kent.
Life is great, but don't expect it to be all rose tinted glasses in this blog. (Maybe rosé tinted?). Being a Mum is the nuts, an absolute game changer, but also flippin' harder than I was expecting it to be! This blog is a little snippet into the life of a (once) cool Mum, muddling through this chapter of life called PARENTING x